Vintage Misery
by Mutant Songbird
Summary: 5 years after the end of the mutant word, new teams are rising, old alliances are dying, and mutants are becoming rarer by the second. The world is a wasteland and the X-Men stand divided. The war is here. Borders on rating M for violence. Comic inspired plots with evo and comic characters. Romy and Jonda.
1. Rogue-Thanks for the Memories

** Author's Notes: This is just a prologue to see if anyone is interested in this. It's mostly to get everyone up to date on the situation so there isn't much plot yet, but there will be. **

**This will NOT follow the events of Days of Future Past, despite being of similar themes. While it ****_does_**** take place between the events of the end of Evolution and the future universe in Days of Future Past, the story is not heading there. The only similarities will be the sentinels, Kitty's time travel powers, and the apocalyptic setting, the plot will be different. **

**Much of this draws from the comics and many of those characters will appear, so if you're familiar with the Marvel 616 universe you'll get a few spoilers. **

**Rated T for now, bordering on M later for graphic violence and language. **

**Disclaimer: I do not own the X-Men in any way, shape or form, nor do I gain anything by writing these. It is purely for enjoyment. The title is taken from a lyric in Fall Out Boy's Phoenix, which I also do not own.**

Rogue watched the road winding up to the mansion gates, just as she did every morning. And just as he did every morning, Gambit came out of the mansion kitchen after breakfast with a deck of cards and a smirk on his face.

"Go away," she hissed at him, her eyes locked down on the ground below.

"You've got to stop waiting, chere," he said, standing beside her, shuffling his cards. "They ain't coming back."

"It don't matter. If it's not them, it's the sentinels."

"They ain't coming either." Gambit ran a hand though his hair. They'd had this argument enough times already, and as much as Rogue worried him, he'd rather not have it again.

"But what if they do?" she voice lowered to a whisper, "What then, Remy? The last protest, they killed so many already. There are so few of us left as it is, how are we going to hold out if it gets worse?"

"That's why they ain't," Gambit said, "for every one of us dead, there's then of them."

"And that makes it worse." Rogue bit her lip. She hated this, all of it. The fighting, the barricades, the blood, the screaming, it was everything they'd tried to stop. The X-Men had failed, and radiantly so. "We can't even do what the Professor wants us to. We ain't no better then Magneto if we go 'round killing them."

"Rogue, the Professor's jus' trying to keep us alive right now." Gambit spoke calmly. "Like you said, all o' them are dead, and most of us are out of commission."

"That's what I'm saying." She fingered the edge of her skirt, trying to look anywhere but at Gambit. She could handle him when he was pestering her, joking around, anything that reminded her of before. It was when he sobered up and listened that scared her, mostly because she genuinely liked him when he grew up a bit. Of course she'd have to realize that in the apocalypse. "We're weak. Who knows how many of the injured are gonna make it, and it's less who are gonna survive."

"What you meaning?"

"Like John. He's fine, but he ain't all there anymore."

Gambit stifled a laugh. "Johnny never been all there."

"Y'all know what I mean. They're not okay."

"I know." He offered her a small smile. "We goin' get though this, okay? The X-Men forever."

"Okay." She nodded, willing him to go with it. Inside, she knew she was right. While Gambit's optimism was a breath of fresh air, Rouge, on the other hand, had seen the truth. The X-Men had been her only family, and now they where dropping like flies.

The X-Mansion had become a barricaded fortress, only a hollow shell of the haven it used to be. Protests roared in the streets beyond where the wrought iron gate had been replaced by a new one, something that reminded Rogue of a metal china wall. It had been five years since mutants were banned from public, four since the start of the sentinel attacks, and three since mutants had started actively going after humans. The sentinel program had managed to nearly wipe them out, not to mention how the AI was getting much better then it had been at first. There had been a spew of new mutants identified and several new groups had formed, some as offshoots of the original teams - Excalibur, X-Force- and some unaffiliated - the Hellfire Academy, among many others.

But more and more were dying.

They came monthly, humans with picket signs reading anti-mutant slogans. At first the protests had been peaceful enough, but they got worse every time. First, it was the signs. Then it was the bonfires, then the home-made grenades, then even schools coming in on there yellow busses to rally. Whole schools, full of innocent children who didn't need to see the reality of the word yet.

The worst of all had been when one of those schools came. A man had an X-Gene detector, and it read true on one of the children. It was a small girl, couldn't have been more then eight. Early power manifestation, the child of two mutants. Red hair, green eyes, small and adorable. They pulled her to the front of the crowd, right outside the gate. Every member of the X-Men had watched, some rushing outside to help the girl.

It was too late. A man came at her with a knife. He was thrown far, far away in a shattering of blood and bones. That caught the mob's attention. They piled on the girl, leaving only a bloody corpse. It had been the beginning of the mutant massacre.

After that, the next time the protesters had gathered, they were ready. A new team had been founded: Silver Runner. Made only for the point of crowd control, it utilized tactics from powers that left low-level or controllable damage. Kurt had been offered the position to lead the team by Xavier, but turned it down after being pleaded by Kitty not to, after all the risks had been assessed. The leadership reverted to Gambit, who gladly took it. He, along with Nightcrawler, Boom-Boom, Avalanche, Sunspot, Jubilee and Wolfsbane had consisted of all the members. Three months after they were founded, as Rogue and Gambit were standing by the window, only he and Kurt remained unscathed.

Shard, as it happened, was the faction of the X-Men responsible for the heavy, bloody, dangerous work. They were, in the most blatant sense, the X-Men's assassins, lead by none other then Rogue herself. Shard only consisted of the most deadly mutant powers, among the likes of Rogue, Iceman, Scarlet Witch, and Wolverine. The team numbered around ten, but after everything that had happened, it was a rather large number of mutants.

There were other teams as well, made to support the system. Free Blood was the search and rescue team, led by Kitty, who'd grown into her own as a time manipulator. It turned out she could phase through more then three dimensions.

The Inelegance, founded by Mystique, ran surveillance and government PR problems, often assigning Shard to go into action. Rogue found it odd, working alongside her adoptive mother and kept her distance, as did Mystique. They had silently agreed it was better that way.

Magneto had held a team for a while, but they had died with him, the exception being Pyro and a few others who'd dragged themselves out of the pit.

Rogue almost grimaced at the memory. Pyro had come crawling into the mansion one day, bloodied and beaten, fire swirling around him. The words he had said stung themselves into every mind and sole of the X-Men:

"The war is here."

And, like always, there were the X-Men, plain and simple. Shard handled the dirty work. Silver Runner had taken the crowds. Free Blood handled any mutants in need of aid. The Intelligence ran behind the scenes. Xavier was in charge. Scott took orders from him. Jean took orders from Scott. Storm took orders from Jean. The rest of the "X-Men" took orders from her. The Intelligence took orders from the X-Men. Team Shard took orders from the Intelligence. Shard oversaw Silver Runner and Free Blood.

The system worked, for the most part. They managed to deflect most of the attacks with minimal losses and saved many mutants as well.

But now, there was a war to be had.


	2. Rogue - Cure for Your Crisis

** Disclaimer: I do not own the X-Men. Chapter titles come from 'Thanks for the Memories' by Fall Out Boy, and 'Freaks' by The Hawk in Paris, which I also do not own. **

The dusk air was alive with bitter wind. Rogue had figured at first it was Storm's doing, but had quickly rejected the theory after overhearing her and Jean discussing an uncontrollable cold front coming in from the north.

Well, that was news to her. There'd been no word on any forthcoming problems lately, and the mansion was almost lulled into a sense of security. As much security as they could have as a mutant operation, anyways.

The word had sent Rogue hurrying back to her room as fast as she could without razing suspicion. If this was too big for Storm to control, they were going to try and keep it under wraps from as long as they could.

Slamming the door behind her, she ducked into her room and dropped to all fours. Rogue poked through the dusty underside of her bed, then her closet, then finally through her drawers. Her laptop had to be there somewhere; it was far too valuable to loose.

She eventually found it in the back of her dresser, hidden beneath a pile of clothes she'd forgotten she even owned. Rogue paused to look at them for a second, only to find that the recent years of malnourishment had left them too loose for her. She threw them back in her dresser anyways, figuring it wasn't like anyone would care if her clothes were a little to big when there were much more pressing maters at hand.

Rogue flicked the power button on her laptop, willing it to work after a year of neglect. She'd simply been to busy with the ever present threat of destruction to use it much, but a storm even to big for the weather witch was worth conforming with the news. Most of the mansion was cut off entirely from the media, especially the little ones, for fear they'd reveal something important. The fact they had only heard of it then didn't mean it wasn't real.

Sure enough, after dragging through a stream of boxes prompting updates and cuing up Google, the prediction was right there: _Weather to Drop Drastically. Coldest Winter in Years. Ice Age Approaching? _

Rogue rolled her eyes at the last one, but a feeling of dread was creeping into her stomach. Storm may have been powerful, but even she wasn't a goddess, despite her reputation. There were some forces of nature to strong for even them to fix, which is a very, very bad thing when vegetable gardens are your main source of food.

The gardens had been a new addition from after the mansion's gaits had closed for good, cutting them off from outside resources. They still managed to get some food from the outside word, really no less then anyone else. In the day and age they lived in, food was hard to come by for anyone, let alone mutants.

Sure, there were a few mutants with powers who could help, only most of them were too young and inexperienced to keep them up for long enough to survive a winter. They could grow plants inside, but there would never be enough food.

Not to mention the other implications of the X-Men being snowed in: limited water, medical supplies, confined spaces, and it wasn't like they were in good shape to begin with.

Rogue flopped backwards, down onto her bed. At least she got her own room as a senior member of the team, even if she suspected that was more because no one wanted to be around her. The younger X-Men – anyone who'd joined after the New Mutants – were forced to share rooms, sometimes between six or more of them.

She pulled herself off her bed and out of her room, remembering to close her laptop first, and went off in search of Gambit. Rogue figured if anyone would know how to stockpile food, it'd be him. Thief skills and all.

Yeah, that was the plan. Rogue knew damn well she'd be the one to go hungry if it came to it. Aside from Gambit, no one gave to cents about her well being, not after they'd witnessed the full extent of her powers. She was valuable as a weapon, but nothing more, and they'd started to shelf her as unstable and maybe better off dead lately, and she could tell even her powers were starting to loose their pull.

She might be able to round Logan into this, too, if she tried. It wasn't like he was much better off then her in Cyclops's new, militia style X-Men. Rogue briefly considered others, but ultimately decided it was best to keep this under wraps.

Rogue found Gambit faster then she'd expected to, running into him in the hallway just around the corner from her room. His face was set in a grim expression, mouth pulled tight under his devil eyes.

"Chere," he said, "you checked the weather lately?"

She nodded curtly, having long ago stopped trying to get him to drop the nicknames. Hell, she kind of liked them, even if she never admitted it. "I was going to ask the same thing. Is word out already?"

"Non, I don't think so," he waved back towards Rogue's room, "We need to keep this quiet, then?"

"Yeah," Rogue said, leading him down the hall. She was used to the offhand comments by then, and frankly, they were some of the less insulting ones compared to some of what she heard when they thought they were being quiet.

Gambit closed the door behind them and sprawled across her bed, wiggling his eyebrows suggestively. "My, chere, in bed again?"

Rogue snorted, sitting down on the other end. "Shut up, Swamp Rat. This is serious."

He righted himself, and then leaned back against the headboard. "Remy's all ears."

"Look," Rogue said, "we both know we're no one's favorites. If this storm is as bad as they're making it sound, we need to hole some food away before anyone else get it."

"Sounds like a plan, but there ain't much in terms of preserved food in the mansion. Where're we gonna get it?"

Rogue huffed at him. "I don't know, Remy. You're a thief, think of something."

"The Prince of Thieves, chere." He smirked back at her. "There's a difference."

"Fine," she said, "so what do you think?"

Gambit considered it, working over possible solutions again and again. At least, that's what Rogue figured, he could have been thinking about anything.

This goes on for a good ten minutes, until eventually he sighs and shakes his head, snapping Rogue out of her daydreams. She'd absentmindedly put her hair into a loose braid, having grown it out longer in the last year. The white streaks hadn't grown for reasons beyond her, although she guessed some kind of small secondary mutation. At least it was an invisible enough mark, unless someone was looking for mutants specifically she blended in well enough.

"I got nothing," Gambit said, "there's too much security inside the mansion. We'd be able to get a bit, but as soon as they notice anything missing, we're done for."

"I thought you said you're the Prince of Thieves," Rogue grumbled, "so if we can't stock up from inside, what are we supposed to do?"

He leaned back and fished his playing cards out of his pocket, running them across his fingers. "Remy thinks we're gonna have to go outside, chere."

Rogue looked him up and down, trying to catch the wisp of a joke on his face, but was met with nothing but complete seriousness. "We can't, Remy. We'd be killed."

"Not if we're careful," he said, "think we'd need more then the two o' us, though."

"If we were to do this, who'd we ask?" Rogue opened her laptop again and flipped through the predictions, trying to find a date. "It says this hits in a week or close. Who's going to get on bored that fast?"

He shrugged. "What about John and Wanda? Worst case, they're a distraction. Think we could round Kitty into it too?"

"Doubt it," she replied, "Kitty's to busy with Free Blood, and even if she's just as pissed about Scott's reign of terror as the rest of us, she ain't gonna speak out against him. Maybe Johan and Wanda, even if it'd be crazy, they're better then nothing."

"Seems like the best option," he said, "if I wear sunglasses we all look human. As long as no one's got an X-Gene detector they shouldn't even see us."

Rogue thought about, considering the odds they faced if they stayed at the mansion with the food they'd be able to grow. "We're going to have to pay for it, Remy. That much food being stolen would scream mutants, even if they guess Morlocks or something. What if we take orders for anyone who can't leave the mansion if they pay and charge them for the delivery? We'd make enough."

"You're suggesting a smuggling ring, chere?" Gambit laughed. "Je l'aime."

"So we've got a plan then, Cajun?" Rogue grinned, partially at the stupidity of the plan. It was overly risky and defiantly a lot harder then it sounded, and chances were they'd end up caught and dead. So those were their odds, take them or leave it. They'd seen worse.

"Oui, it's a plan," Gambit leaned towards her, cocking his head to the side, "Y' know, Remy usually makes people pay for his services."

Rogue pushed him away, groaning over dramatically. "Stuff it, Swamp Rat."

He laughed again, standing up and crossing her room for the door. "Y' wound me, chere."

"Bye, Remy." Rogue almost pushed him out at that point, closing the door behind him. She cracked it back open a second later and yelled back at him as an afterthought, "You better not forget about this."

Gambit glanced back over his shoulder, waving a hand back at her. "Remy won't, River Rat."

Rogue grumbled, but choose not to protest the one nickname she still resented. It wouldn't be any worse then the others, if not for the fact that it reminded her of home before the world fell to pieces, before she knew she was a mutant. Rogue had spent ages building her own barriers around then and now, ones she'd prefer to remain untouched.

She grabbed her laptop and shoved it back into her dresser drawer, then piled the old clothes back on top of it. There was no telling what would happen if someone found it, but Rogue was sure it wouldn't be a good thing. At best they'd take it away, permanently cutting her off from the outside world.

Deciding it was probably best if she went out and made her presence known before someone went looking for her, Rogue shoved any mess that had been lying about before she'd turned her room upside down back and headed for the door.

On her way out, she passed by her window. Yeah, it was defiantly getting colder.

**AN: Ahh sorry that took so long, interms and all... It's not as long as I'd like, but I realized I hadn't updated this and basically just sat down and wrote, and this is what we got. If anyone noticed a difference, the prologue was written like a year ago, so that's why the narrating 'voice' has changed. Still not sure if this is T or M. **

**There might be more Kitty in this then I'd thought. Next chapter sees the first appearance of Pyro and the Scarlet Witch.**

**PS- Rogue's white streaks are a real life genetic mutation called poliosis, which is a lack of melanin in the hair, eyebrows, or eyelashes. In hair, it's usually around the forehead. It's obvious at birth and in no way age or stress related, being more akin to vitiligo or albinism. There have been several explanations given for it in the comics, but this was always my favourite. **


End file.
